Detroit, MI -- A man set fire to a gas pump when he saw a spider sitting on it.

Susan Adams, the clerk on duty that night, said she watched the entire thing happen.

"He didn't have a cigarette. He didn't have anything on him at all, so all of a sudden I looked out and I [saw] flames," said Adams. Adams hit the automatic stop button for the gas tank and called the fire department.

The man who lit the fire grabbed a nearby fire extinguisher and put out the flames before firefighters arrived. The man told the clerk and officials, he saw a spider on the gas pump, and because he is deathly afraid of spiders, pulled out a lighter and tried to burn the spider.

The next day, he came back and apologized. "He was sorry. He apologized. He was sorry. He didn't know, and it's just one of those things that happen. Stupidity. That's all I can call it...pure stupidity," said Adams.